ABCs of Me

On days like this when it is freezing and POURING outside, all I really want to do is curl up on the couch with my coffee and take full advantage of SVU marathons on TV.  Unfortunately, I had to be up bright and early this morning for work.  Boo!  In light of the fact that I would rather blog than work, I have a fun post today that might shed a little light on the blogger personality I hide behind.  Enjoy!

A. Age: 25

B. Bed size: Twin.  Yup, still rocking the twin bed almost 4 years after I finished undergrad.

C. Chore you hate: Washing dishes.  I'd rather scrub bathroom floors.

D. Dogs: Mmmm, yea I'm not really an animal person.  I like other people's pets.  My favorite is Alana's blind dog Lilly.

E. Essential start to your day: Shower. And coffee.

F. Favorite color: Green, orange.

G. Gold or silver: Silver. Hands down.

H. Height: 5'5".

I. Instruments you play: I used to play the piano.  Pretty well actually, but I haven't played since I moved out of my parents' house for college.  Sometimes when I go back to visit, I sit at the piano and really wish I could still play the way I used to.

J. Job title: Staff Research Associate.  Clinical research goddess has a nice ring to it, though.

K. Kids: No thank you please.

L. Live: Sunny (but not right now) San Diego, CA.

M. Mom’s name: Manijeh.

N. Nicknames: Where do I start? My family calls me Jay or JayJay, but I've pretty much been called everything under the sun: JBoxx, JBadd, JMoney, JBizzle, Jihad (thanks Alana).  The list goes on.

O. Overnight hospital stays: None, knock on wood.

P. Pet peeve: Bad grammar and spelling errors drive me INSANE.

Q. Quote from a movie: "That's the Persian mafia...you can't hang with them unless you drive a BMW"  Name that movie!

R. Righty or Lefty: Righty.

S. Siblings: One older brother, and the sassiest 2-year old niece a girl could ask for.

T. Time you wake up: Usually around 6:30-6:45 during the week.  Around 8 on the weekends.

U. Underwear: Nice try!

V. Vegetables you dislike: Turnips.

W. What makes you run late: Running late really isn't my style, but it's usually traffic.

X. X-rays you’ve had: My teeth!  And I had a chest x-ray once when I was a kid.

Y. Yummy food you make: Dark chocolate marshmallow bark.  That's about it.

Z. Zoo animal favorite: Orangutans!

Had enough yet?  Happy Saturday!!

Fail x3

Four day weekend = awesome, right?  I'm gonna go with yes, minus a couple of noteworthy (and kind of special, of the paste-eating variety) fails.

On Saturday, after a STELLAR week in which I managed to finally break through my 2 month long plateau, I decided it would be a really good idea to make chocolate marshmallow bark.  8 batches of it.  I experimented with peppermint extract, extra dark chocolate, dried cherries, and dried cranberries.  The good news? Everyone at work is gonna LOVE me tomorrow.  The bad news?  I've had 8 batches of chocolaty marshmallowy goodness sitting in my fridge all weekend.  And then there were 7.

On Sunday, my friend and old coworker Elle excitedly told me that Maz Jobrani was going to be at the House of Blues on Tuesday night.  I kind of love Maz Jobrani.  Self-deprecating humor is pretty much the key to my heart, and Maz does a fantastic job of summing up my entire childhood in 3 minutes here.  I jumped at the chance, and bought tickets.  Too bad he won't be at the House of Blues until the 24th.  THURSDAY.  Not tonight.  How both of us missed this I'm not sure, but I'm glad we figured it out before I left the house and sat in traffic for an hour trying to get downtown.

Yesterday, after my mediocre run (Note to self: running into the wind on a grade is not the best idea you've ever had) I decided to self-medicate with graham cracker frozen yogurt.  Standard.  I'm pretty sure the people who work at Golden Spoon would only recognize me in my workout clothes.  I walked back out to my car, unlocked it, and opened the driver's side door, only to be greeted by the inside of a car that....wasn't mine.  It was a MESS.  After having a mini flip-out and screaming on the inside for a little bit, I realized that my car was actually two rows over.  This little incident cost me a bit of my dignity and my froyo spoon.  Maybe here is not the best place to admit that I had an extra spoon in my purse.  Even more reason to self-medicate.

This (shortened) workweek promises to be busy, but at least I have Maz to look forward to on Thursday night!

Playing Hooky

No, not really.  I am home from work today, and people have been coming in and out of my house to survey and repair the water damage from a roof leak in my guest bedroom.  The last time this happened (yep, it's happened before...San Diego drainage systems FTW!!), my own bedroom was out of commission for a couple weeks.  Not an ideal situation, but at least I have my own room this time!

I flew up to the Bay Area to visit my parents this past weekend.  For some reason, work was more draining than usual last week, so it was realllly nice to just take a break and spend some time with my family.  On Friday night, my parents picked me up from the airport and we went straight to Yoshi's.  We hadn't been there in ages, and it didn't disappoint.  We decided to also get tickets to the jazz show after dinner, which is wholly unlike my parents.  The George Duke Quartet played a pretty sweet set.  I've never really listened to jazz, but it was so smooth and uplifting, and really enjoyable.

I also got to spend some quality time with my niece.  Who knew that a 2 year old could love Bieber and Usher?  She was a ball of energy and so much fun!  She talks up a storm and would love nothing more than to eat ice cream for every meal.

Yesterday, I bit the bullet and registered for the Sue Krenn 15K.  What have I gotten myself into??  I guess we'll find out in a few weeks!  Since I started running and doing races last year, I've realized that I really enjoy the longer distances.  I've already finished one half marathon, and it's already time to start thinking about a training plan for my next one, the Rock n' Roll San Diego 1/2 Marathon!  Is it weird that I geek out at the thought of making up my own training plans?  Too bad I can't be that excited about studying for the MCAT.  Le sigh.

Here is to hoping that I can make it through the rest of this week with my sanity intact...wish me luck!

Going Home

So the plan for this post was to put up some pictures from last Saturday's Super Run.  After taking a peek at all of them, I decided that this was the only blog-worthy shot.

This was probably around mile 4-5.  We decided to mug for every camera we saw, and this was the only winner.  Sad but true.

I've spent the past few evenings making Valentine's day goody bags for my friends and coworkers.  I can't wait to pass them out tomorrow!  I started making valentines on a whim a few years ago, and the habit just kind of stuck.  I even took a few for my trainer and the rest of the gym staff tonight, since apart from work and home, the gym is where I spend the most time.  You would think that taking bags of candy into a gym would be taboo, but I guess not.

Tomorrow afternoon I will be flying up to the Bay Area to spend the weekend with my parents.  I am ridiculously ready for some down time, and even more excited that we are going straight from the airport to Yoshi's in Jack London Square for some tasty eats and cool jazz.  Saturday breakfast with Ava (my niece and the sassiest 2 year old on the planet) is also on the agenda for the weekend.

I suppose now would be a good time to start packing my things...

Pay it forward

As I mentioned in my last (and first, ha!) post, I ran my very first half marathon on Jan 23.  I woke up that morning feeling amazing and ready to take on 13.1.  I met up with my coworkers Debra and Melanie at the starting line, and we all warmed up and stretched together.  As we waited our turn to finally cross the start, I turned on my music and danced around, C+C Music Factory style.  I really just wanted to get going.

After the start, Melanie pulled ahead as I settled into my pace.  I felt really good.  In fact, for the first 9.5 miles or so, I felt like I was on top of the world.  Right around 9.75, things began to fall apart.  All of a sudden I felt mentally drained.  I could feel tears welling up.  My legs kept kicking just fine, but my mind was telling me to quit.  I don't know that I could explain it any other way.  And then I did what I had been determined not to do.  I walked.  With tears in my eyes and badly wanting to give up, I ran/walked the next two or so miles.  I felt so defeated, like I had somehow failed because I hadn't run the whole way.

Right around the mile 12 marker, I saw Debra.  She had finished and come back for me.  It was as if she knew all the thoughts flying through my head.  "TURN THAT FROWN UPSIDE DOWN!!  YOU'RE ALMOST THERE!!  FINISH STRONG!", she said, as she started jogging alongside me.  She ran with me during the entire last mile, providing the moral support that I so desperately needed.  During the last quarter mile, Debra's husband Zac also joined us.  Their support along with the hundreds of people cheering in the finishing chute gave me the last oomph I needed to finish strong.

I don't think I could ever describe to Debra in words what her encouragement meant to me.  She has been a sort of running mentor for me, and to have her support was really amazing.  After thanking her profusely, her response to me was (in Facebook comment form, of course) "Anytime girl!  Pay it forward!".

And so this weekend, I did just that.  A friend of a friend found out that I was running in the Super Run 10K on Saturday.  She had wanted to run, but didn't have anyone who wanted to wake up that early on a weekend.  I had never officially met her before, but I invited her to run with me if she wanted.  We met on race morning; her goal was just to survive a 10K, my goal was to just get in a good run (and get the t-shirt, obviously).  So we jogged, chatted, and encouraged each other.  She finished her first 10K race, and I KILLED my PR by more than 3 minutes.  Win-win situation.  She told me after the race that if it weren't for me, she would've found a million excuses to stop.  I almost didn't tell her that I needed her there as much as she needed me.  I'm glad I did.

Dear universe, please consider my debt of gratitude paid forward.

Just getting started

Following in the footsteps of my newly relocated friend Alana, I've decided to start blogging.  I'm not sure if I'll have any kind of rhyme or reason to said blog - my instincts say not so much.  I really like the idea of taking some time out every few days to jot down my ramblings, so I'm making it a goal for myself to blog at least twice a week.

Work has been a little rough this week.  Waaay too much work and not nearly enough time.  Did I mention we had a full schedule today AND half our department was out sick?  Thanks to job stress, my workouts have also suffered this week.  It has been the biggest chore to just get myself to the gym, let alone slog through a half-arse cardio and strength routine.  I've been trying to get to bed earlier (I fell asleep before 11pm last night!), but I still wake up tired and with headache.

I'm looking forward to the weekend for a couple of reasons: #1...the Super Bowl!!  Packers vs. Steelers makes for a pretty sweet matchup!  If you're thinking about rooting for the Steelers, I'm pretty sure we can't be friends.  Another reason I'm excited for this weekend is the Super Run 10K.  It'll be my second road race this year (my first was the Carlsbad half marathon...I am officially a half-marathoner!), and it'll be nice to get back into the swing of not-crazy distance running.  Just me, my headphones, and the lovely scenery of Fiesta Island.  Well, maybe minus the lovely scenery part.  I'll just stick with me and my headphones.

My bed calls...wish me luck on my run this weekend.  Aaaanndddd...GO PACKERS!